Federal summer job funding policy draws rebuke from Bishop Fabbro

Letter issued stating London Diocese won’t be ‘bullied’ into backing abortion

Bishop Ronald Fabbro is taking a public stand against the Canadian government as part of a national furor over what faith leaders consider a heavy-handed policy regarding abortion.

Fabbro issued a letter Tuesday saying the London Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church will not seek funding from a federal summer jobs program because it will not be “bullied” into supporting abortion.

Instead, the diocese intends to request donations from parishioners, including in Windsor and Essex County, to help pay for summer jobs such as camp leaders, IT officers, archive workers and more.

The rare stand against Ottawa is a reaction to new requirements for federal summer-job funding.

The Government of Canada’s online summer jobs funding-application page requires applicants to attest that the employer’s core mandate supports individual human rights:

“The employer attestation for CSJ (Canada Summer Jobs) 2018 is consistent with individual human rights in Canada, Charter rights and case law, and the Government of Canada’s commitment to human rights, which include women’s rights and women’s reproductive rights, and the rights of gender-diverse and transgender Canadians.”

The online form goes on to clarify the attestation even further:

“The government recognizes that women’s rights are human rights. This includes sexual and reproductive rights — and the right to access safe and legal abortions. These rights are at the core of the Government of Canada’s foreign and domestic policies.”

The summer employment grants now fund about 70,000 placements for students across Canada.

Religious groups have previously taken advantage of the grants to hire help for summer camps, daycares, drop-in centres and other programs.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has recently come under fire for the attestation, with hundreds of churches and other religious groups who hire summer help saying they feel like they are being forced to sign a statement that counters their beliefs.

A Toronto anti-abortion group has filed a court case arguing its Charter rights are being violated by the attestation. London Diocese spokesman Nelson Couto said the requirement to attest to principles with which the Catholic Church disagrees is too much.

“The government’s values and our values don’t match,” Couto said. “And now that the government predicated funding on their values, we can no longer participate in the program because our values are different. The Catholic Church believes that life is sacred. So we don’t agree with abortion.”

The issue of balancing human rights and personal beliefs appears particularly tricky in this case. None of the five University of Windsor academics who specialize in women’s rights contacted by the Windsor Star on Tuesday agreed to talk on the record about the issue.

But Fabbro said it was time to make a point — and that the diocese may not apply for the federal summer job funding until another government is in office.

“I believe that we need to take a stand against the position of the government of Canada, and say that we will not be bullied into even the appearance of collusion on this issue,” Fabbro wrote in his strongly-worded open letter to 118 parishes in the Roman Catholic Diocese of London.

“While others may take an alternative path, we can make a powerful statement by saying ‘no’ to the conditions as set down by the government.

“We ask that the Government remove or change the attestation, which is a regrettable infringement of freedom of conscience and religion, of thought and belief, of opinion and expression, as guaranteed in the Charter.”

Fabbro said the diocese had hoped to collect almost $35,000 from the program, which the church has accessed before, to help create summer jobs. Because Fabbro feels the summer programs are beneficial, however, he said the diocese will take up a special collection during the month of February to help pay for the summer jobs that would otherwise vanish.

The bishop referenced a previous statement, released Jan. 25 by leaders of various religions, including the Catholic Church, which noted that the “promise of a free and democratic society is that there is no religious or ideological tests or conditions to receive government benefits or protection.”

London North Centre Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos defended the jobs grant program, saying the restrictions were only intended to preserve basic rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He said the restrictions only target organizations that distribute graphic images of aborted fetuses or which refuse to accept LGBT youth.

Fragiskatos said the government is concerned about organizations covertly working anti-abortion advocacy into an otherwise unrelated activity, such as a summer camp. “We cannot have public money being used for programming that allows (Charter rights) to be violated,” he said. With files from the London Free Press. cpearson@postmedia.com